The First Five Rules of Trump

Descriptions of Donald J. Trump tend to emphasize his unpredictability—he’s an impetuous rogue, an unguided missile, and so on. But careful students of Trump often discover that he is noticeably deliberate in his choices. He calibrates his actions with a subtle sense of the consequences. Years ago, explaining his decorating aesthetic to my colleague Mark Singer, Trump noted that residential buildings call for a specific level of pomp: “I sometimes use flash, which is a level below glitz.”

As a man of idiosyncratic discipline, Trump is consistent enough in his tweets and his comments to allow us to identify the first five rules of Trump communication:

Trump Rule No. 1:

Manage expectations. Casino owners know the importance of loss aversion: we value our losses more heavily, psychologically, than we value our gains. For Trump, that means it’s vital to prevent people from pricing a gain into his image, in case he fails to achieve it. In the days before Time revealed its Person of the Year, Trump was telling crowds, “Even if I deserve it, they can’t do it.” (They did not do it.) Hours before the fourth Republican debate, he tweeted:

I wonder if @megynkelly and her flunkies have written their scripts yet about my debate performance tonight. No matter how well I do - bad!

Trump Rule No. 2:

“Overrated” is the best way to describe a critic who is undeniably prominent. When “loser” doesn’t work—because it clangs against our sense of who is doing well enough, who has influence—Trump reaches for the sense that the truly knowledgeable are not fooled by the appearance of success. “Overrated” is usually reserved for utterances on Megyn Kelly of Fox News, but it can be used for irritants of all stripes:

@oreillyfactor, horrible defense of me against highly overrated @krauthammer. I will bring more people into the party & easily beat Hillary!

Trump Rule No. 3

“Nice” is the preferred term for people who praise Donald J. Trump on television. Whenever possible, Trump campaigns on emotion, not fact, and in his constant recalculation of niceness, he ensures that people remember that, for Trump, this is all personal, not business. During the past twenty-four hours, Trump has rendered a judgment of nice on four commentators, including two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Joe Theismann, who was nice to Trump on Fox News Channel (“He knows far more than football. Thanks for the nice words Joe!”), a couple of lesser-known nice people who are probably underrated, and Chris Matthews:

Thank you @hardball_chris for your nice words. They are very much appreciated. I fully understand that you really get it.

Trump Rule No. 4

“Think about it” invites the reader to imagine a conspiracy, any conspiracy, whatever conspiracy comes to mind. This rule rests on the theory that any set of unfavorable facts can look terrifying, when exposed to sustained thinking. Trump has encouraged his people to think deeply about the motivations of the press, the Republican National Committee, and Mexicans, and they’ve heeded his advice: “Think about it,” Tracy Hooker, a Trump fan told the Associated Press for a piece yesterday, describing her fear of Muslim tourists, immigrants, and refugees. “You don’t know if they like us. You don’t know if they hate us.” She added, “You don't know why they’re here.” Most recently, Trump has advised thinking darkly about Fox News:

Why doesn’t @FoxNews quote the new Iowa @CNN Poll where I have a 33% to 20% lead over Ted Cruz and all others. Think about it!

Trump Rule No. 5

Donald J. Trump hears things – and he knows they sound better when he doesn’t reveal the source. He hears from national-security experts whom he would rather not name; he hears from Washington insiders who love him, and from border guards who need his help but are afraid to come forward. “I hear” is a splendid phrase, impervious to fact-checking, and can be used to describe deep, almost mystical knowledge of the future moves of ISIS and of China, as well as those of the human-resources department at CNN:

Why does @CNN bore their audience with people like @secupp, a totally biased loser who doesn’t have a clue. I hear she will soon be gone!